User blog:YJSFan/Cannon Dispute 3: Salazar's Flashback
Since the release of Dead Men Tell No Tales, question has come forward within the fandom (especially those who are fans of the YA book series) of if or not the books can truly be canon or not anymore. Evidence strongly suggests that the writers of DMTNT likely forgot the book all together when writing the script for the final film. Either this or the completely disregarded them all together, because why else would DMTNT contain so many blatant contradictions with the YA novels? However, being a Young Jack Sparrow superfan I refuse to accept that the book series-which lasts 13 parts can be anything other than canon. So, here I have compiled my own individual fan theories that I believe can make sense of the contradictions with the series that take place in the last fim. 3) Salzar’s Flashback As much as I’m sure we all LOVED seeing a young version of Jack sparrow-- especially being played by Johnny Depp. This damn flashback is by far the most frustrating canon novel--killing thing to ever take place in the potc fandom. But fear not. I believe I have this part figured out as well. Although it was not done without difficulty. (thanks a lot Jeff Nathenson). Nonetheless, here we go… In Salazar's flashback, Salazar himself claims to be the one who gave Jack the name of Sparrow. “He stood there looking like a little bird. And from that day he earned himself a name that would haunt me for the rest of my days. Jack de “Sparrow” - Captain Salazar, DMTNT ''' '''Unfortunately this was something said in one of the movies so we have to take it as canon-- which makes it difficult to call bullsit. However that doesn't rule out the ability to dispute Salazar's credibility to make such a statement in the first place. The theory goes like this: Salazar didn’t really give Jack the name of Sparrow, he just assumes he did. Because let’s face it. Salazar is a bit of a drama queen and if full of himself. And when you think about it, his entire “rage” fueled revenge against Jack is really nothing more than bad karma. Think about it. What is Salazar’s grudge with Jack really about? * Salazar attacked a ship that Jack was on. ''' * '''Both ships were heading towards some rocks * Jack took the wheel and got his own ship out of the way, while Salazar’s ship crashed into the rocks * Now Salazar is pissed because he and his crew died while Jack’s lived. This is honestly something that has always bugged me about DMTNT. Salazar's reasoning for hating Jack is completely unwarranted. Salazar is basically just mad because he attacked another ship and it backfired, so now he blames it on Jack. It’s basically the equivalent of Salzar saying to Jack: “Curse you for actually fighting back when I tried to kill you! Why couldn’t you just have stayed put and let me kill you??” Really Disney? That’s the best backstory you could come up with? Oh well. It is what it is. And regardless of the logic behind Salazar’s rage, it doesn’t take away from the fact that it as part of the headcanon which is the films. ''' '''But back to the theory. Because Salazar is so full of himself, it’s not unreasonable to assume that he was oblivious to the fact that Jack’s last name was in fact "Sparrow" all along. Salazar probably just heard later on that Jack was being called “sparrow” and then thought “yah that sounds about right, I mean I guess he looked like a sparrow on top of the ship when he was gloating at me when I lost. Yup. let’s go with that” -- not realizing that the name was a thing way before that. ''' '''Either that or it’s just a coincidence. Bescides, it's cannon that Teague named Jack and that he is his dad. So this is just more proof that im sorry, but the writers of DMTNT didn't even reasearch the universe that they were writing for. This honestly is probably the answer for everything, but this theory exists for those who still insist on calling the 5th movie cannon despite this. As for the rest of the flashback, the only other real confusing thing is why Jack was a measly crewmember at the beginning of the flashback before being promoted. For this, I just have to say that it was probably only a temporary job for Jack to get money. From the looks of Jack at the time, it’s fair to assume that the flashback took place sometime between Bold New Horizons ''and ''The Legends of the Brethren Court ''series due to the length of his hair and his age in the flashback (upper teens lower 20’s?). At the end of ''Bold New Horizons, Jack goes off on his own with a rather dinky ship. And it wouldn’t be that far fetched to think that he might have descided to become a storaway or cabin boy again to either get money for a ship, or to catch a ride until he can find a moment to “commandeer” another ship of this own during this time. Also let’s face it, in that flashback, there is no reason why Jack would be THAT good at driving a ship through extreamly dangerous waters unless he had done it before-- like when he was sailing the seas as a teenager in the books perhaps? Sounds a lot more likely when you think about it. Conclusion: Salazar didn’t actually give Jack the name of “Sparrow”, he just thinks he did because he’s a self absorbed prick. Also, Jack being a measly cabin boy/crewmember in the flashback, was only a temporary position he was in at that time in his life-- not his origin story. fight me. case closed. Category:Blog posts